Small towns, big problems

Kalkaska resident Virginia Thomas: “When we retired, we thought we had health care until we died.” (photo by Ted Roelofs) KALKASKA -Seated at her kitchen table, Virginia Thomas confessed she is less trusting than she used to be. Thomas, 75, worked nearly 30 years for the rural northern Michigan Village of Kalkaska, serving as everything […]

Back in the 1950s, when Detroit’s automobile industry ruled, few gave much thought to the long-term price of fringe benefits like pensions or retiree health care. The post-World War II auto boom was a model of modern manufacturing, creating jobs from Detroit and its suburbs to cities like Flint and Saginaw. Factories hummed around the […]

A decade of recession hit one region – southeast Michigan – harder than anywhere else. So perhaps it’s no surprise unfunded pension and retiree health-care debt is concentrated there as well, in a long list of cities that extends well beyond Detroit or Flint. Southeast Michigan is responsible for a staggering 86 percent of the […]

It’s a battle cry that began in Detroit and is spreading to other Michigan cities: “Don’t touch my pension.” To that, many of the state’s retired municipal employees are adding another caveat: “And leave my medical insurance alone, too.” With Detroit in bankruptcy court, employees and retirees of other Michigan local governments are watching warily, […]

Saginaw resident Linda Williams is frustrated that the city no longer mows the vacant lot next to her home. (photo by Ted Roelofs) SAGINAW – Standing by the weed-choked vacant lot next to her home, Saginaw resident Linda Williams had a simple question. “Couldn’t they cut it at least one time?” she asked. “I don’t […]

City Manager Maurice Evans: “In hindsight, I would say city officials were looking at long-term expenses.” (photo by Ted Roelofs) KALAMAZOO/PORTAGE – A quick drive through Kalamazoo and its bordering neighbor to the south, Portage, reveals some obvious differences. Others are less so. Kalamazoo, older and more ethnically diverse, has its share of historic downtown […]